You may not close the agreement
at the first meeting. Remember that
this is a relationship-building process.
A company’s management must feel
comfortable to go to their employees
and validate a service they are promoting. You will need to build trust first,
and you may need to present to several
members of management before sealing a contract.

One way to show you can be trusted is
to ask if you can hold a quick, 30-minute
meeting during a lunch hour or before
or after work to present the value of
owning a home. This will show the management team that you can deliver
on your promises. You can even team
up with a local tax preparer to present information about the long-term
tax benefits of owning a home. This
meeting could result in a business relationship with the tax adviser and help
cement the relationship with the company and its employees.

After researching, presenting and
building relationships with several
smaller companies in your area, you
will get more comfortable with this
process and perfect your presentation.
At that point, you will have a proven
track record and should be ready to set
meetings with larger companies.

n n n

As the companies you partner with
grow — and hopefully you may have
a hand in that — so will your pool of
new prospects. Stay consistent with
your efforts and they will pay off. Keep
looking for new local businesses to
approach and make sure you consistently stay in contact with those companies you are already working with
to stay top of mind with their management and employees.

This revenue stream can take a lot
of work, but the results can be worth
it. This is an often-untapped avenue
of referrals because it can be a lot for
one originator to tackle. If it seems too
daunting to you — and too far outside your comfort zone — think about
partnering with another originator in
your office. Two heads often are better
than one. n

Research the company and the point
of contact on their company website,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube
and Yelp. This research will help you
prepare for the meeting. By doing your
research on the company and the person you are meeting with, you can find
common points of interest. You can
then use these common grounds to
make the meeting part business and
part personal, which can help cement
the relationship.

Also, if you notice the company’sonline presence is lacking during yourresearch, you can offer services to helpthem improve that. Helping build theirbusiness can translate to hiring moreemployees, which means more poten-tial loans coming your way. It is impor-tant that the services you offer bringvalue to the company you are court-ing. Always having your hand out is adead-end avenue.

Make your case

Start off on the right foot in your presentation by asking your company contact what benefits they are looking to
offer to their existing employees as well
as new applicants. Make the meeting
more about them and their company
than about you and your business. Let
them do as much talking as they want
while you take notes.

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